Review: Log Horizon

So after the emergence of the famous ‘Sword Art Online’, MMO based anime show’s have become quite popular, one such show that was created is ‘Log Horizon’ which in terms of story line and all around entertainment is far superior to Sword Art Online. While Sword Art Online deals with players trapped in a gaming universe where if they die they die in real life as well, Log Horizon deals with all the players on the Japanese server getting trapped inside this world and making the game a reality where the laws of re-spawn still apply.

The story is about the game elder tale receiving it’s twelfth expansion and during the release 30,000 of the japanese players who were logged in as the expansion was released are transported inside the game world donning their in-game avatar look a like. The story centers around a socially awkward player named Shiroe who was an expert in playing Elder tale and his two friends Naotsugu and Akatsuki as they learn to struggle with this new world. The story is something very unique I thought since being trapped in this world after what players, or adventurers as they call themselves, describe as the apocalypse isn’t really an issue for them since they can revive and not suffer horrible death like in SAO. The story does change after the first few episodes when the adventurers have to develop their lives in this world by establishing a government, an economy and laws which is what was really good about this show, since it adds what is means to play in a mmo universe.

Shiroe the main character

The artwork is majorly impressive since with many magical based anime’s magic is shown through color and this anime uses artwork to show activate and application of that magic based on certain characters. The character designs are very well done since each character is greatly designed to symbol what kind of class they are, like Shiroe is designed to look like a magic caster since he is an arcemage class and Akatsuki is seen to be stealthy symbolizing her assassin class. Overall I found the artwork and design to be great as symbolizing various elements in this mmo based universe .

characters discussing stuff and interacting

The soundtrack is very good with an opening that is very good at representing the anime as being a mmo based one, and the ending being very addictive sung by Yunchi. The full soundtrack has not been released yet unfortunately but during certain scenes there is music that perfectly represent’s the scenario in the scene, like when Shiroe gathers all the main guilds of Akihabara at the round table and offers them an alliance. I really enjoyed the soundtrack for this anime and the opening and ending were quite addictive and fun to listen to each episode.

http://youtu.be/0_JAS_bctIY

The characters are the greatest part of this anime, since we get such a huge cast of characters we get a lot of different personalities and character interaction. This anime shows how a true mmo game plays, in my opinion, since unlike Sword art online we are introduced to a party formation system where each player in the party has a unique skill to bring to the fight as is demonstrated early in the show by Shiroe, Akatsuki and Naotsugu as they fight a band of rogue adventurers. the greatest point is possibly the acknowledgement that not only do the adventurers live in this world now, but so do the in-game NPC’s or people of the land as they are called in the show.

Shiroe and the round table.This is a big deal guys !

So overall everyone should without a doubt watch this anime! it has such a good story, the characters are all very likable and doesn’t focus on one player and his possible romance’s (yeah I mean you Sword Art Online) which for me especially was a big plus cause we got more story and characters. There is probably a few people out there who have watched Sword Art Online and said they wouldn’t watch this considering they didn’t like SAO, but this is just the perfect anime for you then since it doesn’t everything right that SAO got wrong and many people who have played MMO games can majorly relate to the way this anime portrays a mmo universe.

Games, Anime and Movies! There is literally nothing that doesn't interest me. I probably watch too much anime and want to live in a fantasy world. I am that guy who plays all the those Japanese games nobody else plays. I generally review different anime shows and said Japanese games for the site as well as doing a few interviews with talented voice actors and other people of interest.